Special Session 7

SPECIAL SESSION #7

Enrico Maria Lodolini

Università Politecnica delle Marche

• e.m.lodolini@staff.univpm.it

Davide Neri

Università Politecnica delle Marche

• d.neri@staff.univpm.it

José Enrique Fernández

Institute for natural resources and agrobiology (IRNAS, CSIC), Spain

• jefer@irnase.csic.es

Francesco Paolo Marra

University of Palermo, Italy

• francescopaolo.marra@unipa.it

Innovative technologies, methodologies, softwares, sensors and applications for measurements are playing a crucial role in the monitoring and the precision olive orchard management. Such tools allow the farms to take advantage of more precise measurements during cultivation and production process. This session will focus on research advancements related to technologies for vegetative growth and crop monitoring, proximal and remote sensing for irrigation water management, smart data acquisition to integrate decision support systems in order to address nutrient deficiencies and help crop protection and precision measurement tools for canopy management and fruit growth monitoring.

Enrico Maria Lodolini is Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences (D3A) of the Università Politecnica delle Marche. He previously covered the position of senior researcher at the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Center for Olive, Fruit and Citrus Crops in Rome. His main research interests are olive ecophysiology, tree architecture and canopy management, root topography and growth, cultivation management in increasing planting systems, sustainable soil management in traditional and intense olive orchards, agroecology. He participated as coordinator and researcher in many international and national projects. He has been visiting professor at the Facultad de Agronomia e Ingenieria Forestal de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, lecturer for undergraduate and graduate courses at the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences of the Polytechnic University of Marche and he participated as expert in several international cooperation and development projects. He is author of several publications in scientific journals and conference proceedings with international diffusion, books and book chapters, as well as national professional journals.

Davide Neri. Professor of Arboriculture and Olive Growing at the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences (D3A) of the Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, where he has been appointed Director in November 2021. PhD in Tree Crops. "Visiting scholar" at Michigan State University, USA, in 1987, "visiting professor" at the Global Agricultural School of Tokyo University, Japan, in 2000, and adjunct professor at the University of Molise (1995-99). "Lecturer" in olive growing at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Director of the CREA 'Research Centre for Fruit Growing' from 1 October 2014 to 30 April 2017. "Visiting researcher" at the National Research Institute of Fruit Growing in Tehran in 2015 and 2017. FAO "consultant" for fruit growing from 2014 to date, with several missions to Georgia and Armenia. His scientific and technical areas of interest are related to propagation, pruning and training systems, flower differentiation and architecture of fruit trees, germplasm evaluation and valorization, sustainable management of fruit species and olive agro-ecosystem with particular reference to the problem of replanting, intensification and sustainability of tree crops, precision agriculture and the use of biostimulants. He was coordinator of the EU CORE Organic project "DOMINO - Dynamic sod mulching and use of recycled amendments to increase biodiversity, resilience and sustainability of intensive organic fruit orchards and vineyards". Scientific coordinator for 4 operational groups in the Marche Region, including 'Valorizzazione dell'olivo DOP di Cartoceto'; 'Oliva Tenera Ascolana'.

José Enrique Fernández is a Research Professor at the Institute for Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville (IRNAS) a research institute belonging to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Dr Fernández is the head of the research group on Irrigation and Crop Ecophysiology (https://www.irnas.csic.es/rec/). He is specialised in plant water relationships of crops typical of arid and semi-arid areas. Along his career he has focussed on the design of irrigation strategies for deficit irrigation, and in methods to schedule precision irrigation from plant-based measurements, suitable for digital agriculture. He has worked with a variety of herbaceous and woody crops, mainly olive. In the last years he is interested in methods to optimise the agricultural use of water in a context Sustainable Intensive Agriculture, where food security is ensured at the same time that natural resources are preserved, biodiversity and landscaping are improved, a fair profit to the producers is guaranteed and the socio-economic conditions of rural environment are enhanced. Since 2014 he is the director of the IRNAS. From April 2015 to June 2018 he was Coordinator of Agriculture for the Spanish Agency of Evaluation and Prospective (ANEP). Since 2013 he is Editor in Chief of the scientific journal Agricultural Water Management.

Francesco Paolo Marra. Full Professor at the Department of Architecture (DARCH), University of Palermo; PhD in Horticulture. Visiting scientist at the Department of Horticulture, University of Georgia (Athens, USA) from December 1991 to July 1992, working on “Responses of young peach trees to root confinement”, and at the Department of Pomology, University of California (Davis, USA) from April to October 1997.
His main research activities are focused on: modelling phenological development of temperate fruit species; development and evaluation of orchard management practices and technologies; ecophysiology of fruit species; optimisation of deficit irrigation in orchards; Germplasm characterisation of different fruit species; Molecular fingerprinting of fruit trees. He has been responsible for postdoctoral training programs.
Member of the Società Orticola Italiana (SOI) and the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). Chairman of the working group on “Flowering, Fruit Set and Alternate Bearing” of the ISHS (2017-2021). Member of the following Workgroups of the ISHS: Sensing Plant Water Status; Irrigation and Water Relations; Biotechnology of Horticultural Species; Modelling in Fruit Research and Orchard Management; Cherry Production; Olive Culture; Figs; Orchard and Plantation Systems; Environmental Physiology and Developmental Biology; Almond and Pistachio. Member of the Italian Academy of the Olive Tree and Olive Oil, Spoleto - Italy. He has presented numerous invited keynotes/seminars/lectures at major scientific events worldwide and has been the convener or member of the Organizing or Scientific Committees of several international and national symposia. He has been responsible or collaborator for numerous national/international research projects.